November 19, 2008

Martha Stewart did a whole show on blogging. I think the date is September 17th of this year which it is still possible to view. The show did not tell you how to get going, or the practicalities of set up, but she had prominent bloggers from the entertainment, food, decorating, and gardening world. There are a few people that can actually make a living at blogging. Her audience was bloggers only and they were there with their lap tops. She gave away to everyone in the audience several good gifts, one of which was a Hewlitt-Packard printer.

But the inspiration of the program was that if you are passionate or have a wealth of knowledge in one or several subjects, get in there and do it. This is like a snowball rolling, gathering information. Ideas and inspiration are there for the taking. Plus sometimes you meet people. One example is that on the show were two women from Maine and Portland, Oregon. These women had posted their pictures up on Flicker and they noticed they had similar style. The two women started a correspondence and they decided that they would each take a photograph every morning. They then combined their photographs side by side in a book called A Year of Mornings. The book is beautiful and someone will be getting one for Christmas from me. Although this was a good hint for a Christmas present, the benefit for me was reminding me to try to take pictures everyday. Recording life is a great thing.

April 24, 2008

According to myself, I am generally nice enough to people. But two weeks ago, sans ankle break, I annoyed even myself by being rude to a young woman in an Issaqua, yarn store. I didn’t like that yarn, I did not like this yarn, no, I could not take this class, I already had seen that before, blah, blah, blah. I would not be satisfied. I did go back and apologize, but still I had acted pretty ugly and as was the case, looked pretty ugly too. At least I bought something to ease my annoyance at myself, and maybe help make her numbers.

I bought a sock book New Pathways for Socks two months ago and still have yet to complete a sock. This book is difficult, although the author has made every effort to make things as easy as possible, in the end you have to know grade school math, and you have to be willing and able to follow the directions. I can knit socks the old fashioned way. Actually I can knit socks several old fashioned ways. However, these socks in New Pathways for Socks, are architecturally interesting and look as if they fit perfectly. The author, Cat Bordhi, originally shocked the sock knitters world with knitting socks on two needles instead of four or five, has studied many antique socks in museums and has reinterpreted some, and others she has thought up on her own. The challenge is captivating.

Frustrated in isolation and inability to proceed with my latest attempt, I telephoned this above nice young woman, and she made every effort to help me over the phone. She had was a fan of the author Cat, she said that she was her idol. She was very nice. But still my problem was not solved.

I had started a sock three times, by that I mean up to the heel, and it was the most ridiculous mess. Yesterday in my pity party and my “ankle at home” angst I emailed this author, Cat Bordhi, with all my facts and figures and whined a little, and she answered me within hours. Although counting is basic, I had miscounted.

This woman lives, as the crow flies, 60 miles away but it takes an eternity to get there by both road and boat. The young woman’s shop Cultured Purls, (fine name and a touching web site.

I would like to publicly thank these women for their gracious help. One of the blessing of our time is that through technology, we are able to communicate a long way and sometimes instantly. But it is the people behind the keyboard and the telephone who make all the difference in the world.

The above socks are what I hope will be his new game day socks, and are not a part of the story.

March 21, 2008

My sister is a needle pointer. She is between projects and is a little frantic looking for the next project. She is on the hunt. We visited two stores, both very nice. She found the an excellent project at our first store. But she wanted to try another store, but for the kind of money you spend needle pointing, you do not want to make mistakes.

At the second shop, were two late fifties Chinese women running the shop. They were helpful, and ran to get us anything they felt we wanted. It takes my sister a long, very long time to shop. I shop fast. I make more mistakes, but it is over quickly. Susan touches everything, thinks where the finished project will be used, how will it look, will the color go with anything else under her kitchen table.

I suggest color combinations, which in the end we purchase, and do not look very garish until we get them home. We spend a lot of time at this shop, which is interrupted by a Chinese lunch next door. We came to know the owner, Frances, well, or as well as you get to know someone who you have known for two hours.

I thought how much my daughter, Margaret would love to have the store. I said so. Frances said that she had retired from being a dentist, she makes no money, and she said she has no children, but needle pointing was her life. She said that she was from China where she had a needle and thread shoved in her hand at age four. Her grandmother went to the factory and brought home the materials for the “cottage industry”, taught Frances to sew (I think mittens), and she worked as a child laborer. She said that life had come full circle for her. She quit her job in America as a dentist fifteen years ago, bought her store where she must meet the costs, otherwise her husband supports her. Many of the new American needle pointing techniques are stitches she did when she was four. She has a needle in her hand again. It is love.

March 11, 2008

Sunday I got around to dyeing the yarn with Kool Aid. So messy and so fun. As it was my first attempt, it turned out mono peach with slight variations. But believe me, when I say I will be doing this again.

March 02, 2008

The last several days have been spent a) at the Geek Squad or b) at the Sew Expo here in Puyallup.

I am going crazy with my computer as I can not get photos posted to my blog. And I really think that photos add to the blog. The Geek Squad was indeed very Geeky, but they could not produce results for less than $215.00 plus the $30 I had already spent. They had their price ; I had my price, and I did not think it wise to pay their price, when they did not have a thought on how to fix it.

Dear Mr. Radish drove 250 miles to take me to the famous Sewing Expo here in Puyallup at the state fair grounds. I had hoped for more knitting booths there and dyeing booths, but such was not the case. What I did see were a few people from whom I had taken sewing classes in San Francisco. The show was mainly for quilters. But there were a large number of sewing pattern booths. Let me say if you are a large woman and sew or have a seamstress there was help for you. I succumbed to buying two blouse/jacket patterns. I have not been sewing for perhaps 12 years. But the pattern designs are now more accommodating to the sewer. The patterns that I bought, were made up entirely of square pieces. So it is relatively easy to adjust a square. The patterns that I bought were called PARK BENCH PATTERNS. On display were several interpretations of the same pattern. Some were very elegant. The major pattern companies working to make the patterns more accessible to you. And naturally you can buy a software program that you can add your own measurements and the printer will spit the pattern back at you. There are a wealth of these small pattern companies on the Web.

Another rewarding part of the visit , I met a man and wife who own the company Philosopher’s Wool from some place near Ontario, Canada. He wrote a book of his life and knitting with two hands, Fair Isle patterns. He wrote about how in his life one thing just lead to another. He had a PhD. in something relateded to philosophy, but naturally he could not find a job. He was given 2 sheep, but they died, and then he got nine, and he couldn’t kill them, and what to do, and okay shear the sheep, then what to do with the wool, so he spun yarn on and on. Very pleasant old hippies that have worked out a wonderful and rewarding life. I once called their home to order a children’s kit, and the wife said, she had been out in the garden all afternoon.

The kits are about $140 American. But that does not seem unreasonable with price of wool, and the additional fact that the wool is nicely hand dyed. Some of their sweater were for sale for close to $700. I had just seen the little sweater I had knit lying on a child’s closet floor. The very sweater that I had called and ordered, and that I had knit for two grandsons back. I thought to myself, I should get that sweater back, Mr. Radish and I can retire on that. But of coarse the sweater will never wear out, and the sweater has at least one grandson to go. I have to say that it is the one sweater I have knit, that can take the closet floor.

February 22, 2008

Knitting socks as a rage had just started when I took my four year hiatus from knitting. So when I picked up knitting my socks again, a lot had come down the road. Both in ways of knitting socks, good ideas how to improve sock, and the biggie, yarn has gone through a real transformation. It is very hard these days to knit a plain colored sock yarn. Yarn is dyed to form faux fair isle, stripes, and all over muted blendings. But perhaps the biggest trend, has been self dyed yarns with unsweetened Kool-aid. No wonder my mother did not let us drink the stuff.

I can not wait to do this myself. You take little packages of Kool-aid, blend the colors you want, to try and achieve a color you like. Then you take a ball of yarn and make a hank out of it. Then you dip or soak the yarn in a bowl or jar in a desire dye, and wait for the color to soak into the yarn. Or you make several colors and you paint then on the hanks of yarn with big blotches or little blotches so the yarn will knit into either stripes or perhaps a pattern. Then you wrap the colored yarn up in saran wrap, and either steam it on top of your stove, or microwave it. I have even read that you could put it in your crock-pot. Should any of you want to try this great fun, there are many sites on the Internet which explain the process.

I have only once gone through a yarn dyeing crazy. It was short lived, but it is fabulous cooking without calories. I knit a sweater out of my idigo dyed yarn and I wore that sweater until it was three sized too small.

Happy Birthday George. Thanks for crossing the Deleware. Give a hug to Martha.

February 07, 2008

I am back to knitting socks. My finger going out of the socket, be damned. Of my artistic endeavors, Mr. Radish loves my socks. He knows what they “mean”, they are useful, he appreciates the effort, and he used to think they were inexpensive. Socks take longer to knit than you might think. Given the time I allot to them, it takes about two weeks if I am focused. I am talking about fine gauge socks for a man that he wears with shoes, not heavy socks for boots or clogs.

Knitting has been around for thousands of years, but the history of the sock dates back about 500 years. The two main sock designs were, socks with a fitted short-row heel, and socks that had a heel somehow inserted into a long tube. In the knitting frenzy of the last 15 years, a lot has gone on with socks due to study of old socks and also the creative minds of knitters.

In the old days, you took the set of double point needles that you had, and took the only yarn that you had, and knit up socks. You knew that socks for your husband required 72 cast on stitches, and you knew how to do one heel style and one toe style and if your husband was hard on toes, you added some reinforcement thread. So women knit the same sock over and over and became quite proficient, and the socks were real socks.

Today people knit socks because they love to knit socks. That someone might wear them, and enjoys them justifies the cost of the yarn and is like icing. Women knitters have become inquisitive as to how to make a better fitting sock, a more interesting sock, and a sock that they can change at will the needles size and the incredible variation of new yarn on the market. Sock patterns are seen as architecture. There are even patterns for knitting socks sideways.

I get sucked into the challenging new concepts of sock patterns. Consequentially I never knit socks in the old way over and over, knowing where I am going, and knowing the sock will be perfect in the end. No, I reinvent the wheel. I buy a new sock book, try a different strategy, and make things difficult on myself. What is in it for me? First I buy beautiful yarn and the pleasure of knitting with a beautiful fiber I can not explain. It is the color/colors and the touch. Like an piece of expensive stationary, it is very tactile. It is the hope that something truly beautiful can take form. I love books, and pouring over a set of knitting instructions is as good as any puzzle I know.

February 05, 2008

One of my passions/obsessions over the years has been knitting. I started at ten and made a sweater with total supervision very soon afterwards. My favorite thing to knit was baby sweaters, once I realized that I had a baby. Baby sweaters were fast to knit, and that has always been my first choice. I even made baby sweaters en masse to sell. People loved getting sweaters. And if I did not put out the perfect sweater, that was fine as I did not have to see the imperfections on my child. . I bought a knitting machine and part machined and part hand knit them. I rented a workshop, and cranked those babies out. But alas you have to sell the sweaters. Selling, “dahling”, I am not good at. When I did this was only the start of “made in China”, but even then it was hard to justify the cost.

Later I made sweaters for my grandchildren. I thought those sweaters precious, and with my grandchildren in them, perfect. For a while they liked them, or at least said then did. One grandson, Thing 2 refused to wear a blue gansey knit, when it was the right size, sort of long and big, and slouchy, but about 2 years later he wore the sweater until the hem was nearly up to his arm pits. Once I spent $100.00 on hand dyed yarn for a Calligan and I knit a fair isle. Bless his heart, he wore that sweater like a champ. I have to say that the $100.00 yarn did not wear out, and it could worn by ten more kids. His younger brother, Gabe, wore the sweater, but not much, which I was glad, as the coloring of the sweater on him was enough to make you puke. His mother asked why I did not make a sweater just for him. “He would love it.” Because I can only make a sweater that I like to knit, I chose one I’d like to knit. I finished that sweater for his birthday. It was definitely large, but there is no point in spending the time knitting something that is going to be out grown in a month. The sweater was handsome, if I say so myself. I must have asked five people at the yarn store if the pattern was too girlish. “Absolutely not” was the answer. Just three, Gabe opened the gift wrapping, looked at the sweater, and said, “It is too small”, and threw it down. He cried when his mother tried to put him in the sweater for a birthday picture. In my heart of hearts, I know that he thought it too girlish. That is when I put my needles down for grandchildren.